The Spiral's Start
by Kairyn Deliae
Summary: Slight AU for disregarding of certain Canon. Sanji hasn't let out a peep about his life before the Cruise Obit. Nor has he ever let anyone see his eye. Not even the girls. He's going to have to come clean soon or things might get messy. ZoSan SanZo.
1. Chapter 1

**A/N**: Was anyone else heartbroken when the timeskip ended and you saw the other side of Sanji's face for the first time? It could have at least had a tattoo or something on it... *pouts* So! I've decided to ignore that inconvenient part of canon and come up with my own. Actually not really, I've had this idea in my head from before I read that part of the manga. The original draft had a really horrid OC in it that upon re-reading quite a bit later made me go 'eew Mary-sue' so that was cut. You're welcome. I promise I haven't forgotten Sugar, Spice, and Everything Nice. I've just found I have no self control about posting stories... so yeah...

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"Ah! Luffy! Don't eat that, idiot!"

Everyone's attention was instantly brought to the end of the line they'd been traveling in to see Sanji ripping something from their idiot captain's hands. "But Saaanjii! I'm hungry!"

"You eat this and you'll die, you moron!" Sanji snapped back as he tossed the item he had salvaged in the air lightly. "God, didn't you learn your lesson the first time?" The others blinked and took a closer look at what the cook had. They saw it was a large coconut sized fruit that was bright purple and had blue swirls on it. Not unlike Sanji's eyebrows actually. Though nobody but a certain Swordsman would ever bring attention to that.

"Huh?"

"It's a Devil Fruit…" Nami said in surprise, though her mind was already debating if it would be better to sell it for a hell of a lot of money or have someone eat it and get more powers in the crew. She was leaning towards selling it…

"That's right and you can only eat one in your life. Eat any others and your body will… I don't know, explode or some shit," Sanji said before tossing the fruit to Chopper. "Keep that away from the idiot would you, Chopper? You're probably not stupid enough to eat it."

The little reindeer looked surprised but quickly took on a determined look and nodded. "Right! You can count on me, Sanji!" he declared before stuffing the large fruit into his backpack with a little bit of difficulty. The small doctor had already shoved quite a number of things into his backpack during their hike so there wasn't much room.

"Trust Luffy to somehow stumble across another Devil Fruit in the middle of a jungle…" Nami muttered as she turned around. "We're looking for treasure not food, Luffy. Remember?"

"But I really am super hungry!" Luffy whined. "And it looked really good!"

"It's a goddamned purple coconut, Luffy!" Sanji said in exasperation. "That should be clue number one that it wasn't good to eat it!"

Luffy pouted some. "Saanjii, is it time for lunch yet?" he asked after a whole three minute pause. To be honest, it was a miracle he'd waited even one minute to ask, much less three. "Breakfast was forever ago!"

Sanji sighed. "Breakfast was only an hour ago, Luffy, not forever ago. We'll eat lunch later."

"But I'm hungry nooooww," Luffy whined.

The others didn't have to look back to know that the sound of pain came from a certain captain getting a black polished shoe slammed into his head. "Stop whining! You can stand to wait a while longer for your lunch, damnit!"

Luffy pulled his head out of the dirt where Sanji's foot had lodged him, comically stretching his neck for a moment as the ground refused to let go at first. He shook his head some to get the dirt out of his hair and picked up his hat where it had fallen to the ground beside him. "Sanji's mean," he said childishly.

Sanji sighed, he really didn't like denying anyone food even if he knew that Luffy's appetite was never-ending and he really didn't need the food he wanted. So, more to save himself an argument, Sanji decided to distract his captain. "Maybe there's a bunch of monsters or something guarding Nami-swan's treasure, Luffy."

"Huh? Monsters! Really, Sanji!" Luffy said, jumping to his feet, already looking excited.

"M-m-m-monsters!?"

"Ah! There aren't really monsters are there?"

Sanji ignored the terror the comment had brought from Usopp and Chopper. It wasn't like they couldn't handle a few monsters. "Yeah, you might even get a chance to fight them, Luffy. But we have to find the treasure for Nami-swan first."

"Yosh! Watch out monsters! I'm gonna kick your asses!" Luffy declared as he leapt to the front of the line and practically ran through the jungle in a seemingly random direction.

"Nice going, Shit-cook. Now we've got to go after him," Zoro said in annoyance.

Sanji scoffed, not about to take something like that from his favorite punching bag. "What? You wanted to hear him whine the whole time, Marimoron?" he asked.

Zoro growled. "Would you stop calling me that and every other variation you think up, dartboard?" he demanded. "It got old about the third time you said it!"

"That's rich coming from a moss-brained idiot who can only think of one insult himself!" Sanji snapped back, instantly falling into the familiar pattern of argue and scream until the actual fighting occurred. He liked arguing with Zoro. It was easy and a wonderful distraction based on misplaced aggression. Zoro was the only one he could focus all of that on and meet it without a problem.

Before the two of them could really get started though there was a loud scream, which turned to a laugh midway through. It was a voice that was more than a little familiar to the crew. They all exchanged a dry look, knowing that something horrid was about to happen. Sure enough, not five minutes later Luffy came barreling through with what felt like an earthquake right behind him. Curious, the rest of the crew turned to look and as one unit screamed at the stampede of massive dinosaurs that was coming their way. "Damn it! This always happens!" Zoro yelled as they quickly turned and ran after their brain-dead captain.

Luffy laughed, "I have no idea!"

"It's your fault!" Nami screamed as they continued to tear through the jungle at top speed. Luffy just laughed again as he jumped over a fallen tree.

Though dinosaurs were hardly the worst thing they'd come across there were a lot of them and they were big and they didn't look interested in stopping. The weaker members would surely get trampled if they tried to end the stampede.

The crew ran all the way back through the jungle until they reached the beach and quickly boarded Merry again. Only then did they stop to catch their breath. The dinosaurs stopped on the beach to stamp and roar at them in clear anger but they luckily didn't attempt to ram their ship or any other disastrous thing. Luffy laughed and hopped up onto the ram's head. "That was so much fun!"

"Fun… he calls nearly dying fun…" Usopp panted from where he was sprawled out across the deck.

"Why so surprised, longnose-kun?" Robin asked. Usopp only whimpered in reply, which caused the archeologist chuckle some.

Nami stood up and glared at the island that now had a highly populated dinosaur beach. "Argh! Now how are we going to get the treasure!"

"Relax. We can just fight through them," Zoro said indicating his swords with one hand.

"Ah! You can't do that!" Chopper said jerking upright himself. "They're just defending their home! That'd be really mean to kill them just for some treasure!"

Sanji exhaled a long stream of smoke. "Plus we don't have room for all that meat on board. It'd be a total waste to kill that many dinosaurs just because they were in our way."

"But how are we going to get the treasure?" Nami demanded, clearly not happy about the sudden situation that the Strawhats had found themselves in.

"Perhaps if we waited the dinosaurs will return to the jungle and we can look for it again, Navigator-san," Robin offered. "I doubt they will stay there for too long."

"Ahh, Robin-chwan is so smart!" Sanji swooned with a huge heart in his eye.

With the situation on the beach apparently not resolving itself right away, a certain bottomless pit of a captain decided it was the perfect time for other things. "Saaanjii! Meeat!" He leapt the distance easily and wrapped himself around the blonde several times, drawing a very vocal protest from his cook.

"Ack! Luffy! Get off me you, idiot!"

"Meat!"

"Alright, Alright! I'll cook you some damn meat, just get offa me!" It took a moment to pry the rubbery limbs away but once he was free Sanji stormed off to the galley. A stream of smoke and curses followed him before he slammed the door, mostly to keep Luffy out while he was working more than any real anger. He was glad that Luffy liked his cooking so much but _damn. _

Nami sighed a bit as she looked at the jungle. "Well, I guess we did get that Devil Fruit…" she muttered. "Hopefully those dinos won't hang around too long so we can find that treasure…"

Unfortunately for Nami, the dinos didn't leave very quickly. In fact, they seemed quite content to not leave the beach at all. Several of them were sleeping in the sand and others were munching on the bushes and trees that were growing along the jungle's edge. It took until the sun went down for the dinosaurs to leave. Several of the more forethoughtful Strawhats managed to convince certain others that traipsing around in an unknown jungle at night with large dinosaurs roaming around was a bad idea. No matter how big a treasure was supposed to be lost on this island somewhere.

"Hey! Maybe Zoro or Usopp or Nami or Sanji or someone could eat the Devil Fruit and get cool powers!" Luffy said as they gathered to eat the dinner that Sanji had fashioned from the fish that they'd caught while waiting for the dino's to leave.

"We don't know what that thing does, Luffy," Nami said. "It's better to sell it."

"But what if it does something cool!" Luffy whined in protest.

Sanji scoffed. "With our luck it'd be something stupid like turning yourself into yarn or something shitty like that," he said as he carried another plate over to the table, this one piled high with some potato based dish that nobody but him could manage to pronounce properly.

"Aww, I wanted it to be something cool…" Luffy muttered with a pout.

The others rolled their eyes at their childish captain before starting to eat their dinner. "Oh well, at least we can go find that treasure tomorrow now that those dinosaurs have finally gone away."

"And this time we know not to agitate any dinosaurs on the way," Robin added with a smile.


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N**: Yay more!

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_He smiled some as he peered around the large pillar in the main hall. A very good-looking blonde woman with her hair swept over one side of her face and an eyebrow that curled was in the middle of the entry hall. The blue marble tiles had been swept and she was now in the process of scrubbing them by hand. They were very expensive and hard to get so they were always done by hand to try and make sure nothing happened to them. But what made him smile was the fact that the woman was singing as she worked. He loved listening to her sing._

_She was in her own little world as she moved the rag she was using in a wide circle over the floor. "…hi~igh above. Oh, sing sweet nightingale. Sing sweet nightingale. Hi~igh…" His smile widened as her voice melded into an entire chorus of different voices all of them in perfect harmony with each other. Her throat was glowing slightly and it was impossible to pinpoint the actual place the extra voices were coming from. He knew that she could do far more than just sing an entire chorus by herself with her voice but it was definitely the best to just listen to her use her skills. And singing was better than hearing her scream so loud she broke glass._

_How she did special things like that he didn't really know. But he didn't really care either. She had a beautiful and powerful voice and she was really nice and pretty besides. There was nothing to not like about her. But then, he was also somewhat biased about all of that. Nothing would ever change how he felt about her. No matter what. She was his special lady after all._

_She turned to put the rag back in the bucket she had nearby when she noticed her audience. "What are you doing in here? I told you the hall was off limits today! Go on! Go play outside!" she said though she was grinning and her visible blue eye was sparkling._

_He grinned back and scampered out of the hall to avoid the wet rag she'd flung in his direction. He laughed as he sped through the halls and darted through the large and bustling kitchen. A few cooks and maids yelled out to him as he ran through but he only waved in greeting and kept going. He wasn't going to work today. He wasn't going to lessons either. Because those were boring._

_After cutting through the rose garden and down the path that led to the farmlands out behind them, he finally slowed his run to a walk. He was breathing heavily from his dash but still grinning. Trees started appearing the further he walked but the path was clearly marked so he didn't worry about getting lost at all. The path he chose took him down around the village and over the lock for the nearby river that powered their waterwheel and mill. He glanced at the red painted wheel and red roofed house as he walked past and spotted a few men sitting near it with fishing rods in the water. He waved at them and they gave their own lazy waves back before returning to their -oh so consuming- task of waiting for a bite._

_The path turned sharply to the left and what trees there were disappeared nearly entirely. The farmlands from before reappeared. A mixture of fences and walls divided off different parcels of land that served as both cropland and grazing pastures. Some were relatively new while others had clearly been there for years. He made his way towards the area that had more pastures since he enjoyed watching the animals in the fields. Crops weren't nearly as fun to watch grow._

_Rolling hills of green spread out around him, little white flowers grew here and there along with other bright yellow ones. The rock wall he was sitting on only came up three feet and was made of stones the size of his head or bigger and held together with mortar that had grown green from mosses and vines that had sprouted up from the ground. A gentle warm breeze ruffled his blonde hair. Nearby several fluffy white sheep were grazing and further back, separated by another low wall a few bay stallions were gathering around a water trough. He smiled some and turned his eyes back across the pastoral fields. It was so peaceful today. And he'd even heard his favorite lady singing; it couldn't get much better than that._

_A small stream trickled merrily nearby and the nearby pond sparkled as the light hit its surface. He smiled and brushed his hair off to the side to tuck it behind his ear. He really should cut it. It was getting so long it was starting to get in his eyes. His mother was forever telling him to cut it but he hadn't done it yet. Partly due to just being too lazy to do it. He swung his bare feet through the air idly as his eyes wandered to a nearby cottage where an old woman was putting laundry out on the line. Several blonde children ran around her and the house, screaming and playing. He had half a mind to go join them. He hadn't just played around in a while with all the stupid lessons his stupid father was making him do now a days. Honestly, he didn't care how maps were made… _

_"Oi, Princey!"_

_He blinked and looked over his shoulder at the other blonde that was approaching him with a wide grin. "What are you doing all the way out here?"_

_He returned the grin and rubbed his nose a bit. "Just cutting out," he replied. "Math is boring."_

_This caused the older blonde to throw his head back and laugh. "You're such a spoiled brat. Oh… look at that…" he said staring upwards with awe._

_The younger blonde turned his eyes upwards and his jaw dropped in awe. A pod of huge whales were swimming by, their songs echoing loudly around them. The sun shimmered across their blue backs and elongated jaws in a dancing spider web of light. "What kind?" the older quizzed._

_"Western Humpbacks…" the younger answered in awe as he spotted them heading upwards with a few movements of their powerful tails._

_"Haven't seen them in a while," the older blonde said, causing the younger to look at him. "It's going to be a good day I think."_

_"Yeah?"_

_"Oh yes. Very good day."_

Sanji woke slowly with a slight smile on his face. Those dreams were always so strange but so peaceful. Random sea creatures swimming through what was supposed to be sky was hardly normal to watch but it was so entrancing at the same time. Sanji figured it had something to do with his love of the sea and sea life because there was always something swimming in the sky. Maybe his obsession with All Blue had spread to his subconscious? He rolled his eyes some at that. Not like it mattered. It wasn't like dreaming about places that don't exist and don't even make sense would damage anything. At the very least, that dream was far better than the nightmares of that damn rock. He would gladly never deal with that sort of dream again.

Sanji sat up and stretched his arms over top of his head. It was early yet but about the time he normally got up. He had his whole routine down pat. By the time he got washed up and dressed he'd have about an hour to get breakfast ready before Luffy woke up demanding it.

After washing up and getting dressed, Sanji stepped out onto the deck with a flame already raised to the tip of the cigarette in his mouth. He took several drags of his cigarette as he watched the morning fully come out. He only waited another few moments before turning to head into his galley to start on breakfast.

After he finished putting the trays of food on the table he went to the kitchen door. "Nami-swan! Robin-chan! Your breakfast of love is ready! Oi! Breakfast is ready, losers!" he shouted, knowing that most of them were probably up by this point. Anyone who wasn't he'd wake up shortly with a shoe. Unless it was one of the girls, though Sanji hadn't ever had to wake them up for breakfast before. They were usually pretty early risers. Not like Sanji but definitely better than Zoro who was always needing to be woken up. At least that was someone that Sanji had absolutely no issue with smacking around a bit. In fact, sometimes he got the impression that Zoro stayed in bed just to get Sanji to come down so they could start the day with a sparring match, verbal or otherwise.

Today, however, it didn't seem to be needed. Zoro came in a moment later with a loud yawn and his eyes only half open. But he was there. He probably remembered that they were going to try and go after that treasure again today and didn't want to miss out on any possible action. Or… maybe Sanji was just giving the Marimo too much credit. Yeah, Sanji was certain that would be too much credit.

Breakfast was as uneventful as it could possibly be with the Strawhat crew. Luffy was limited to only a few stolen morsels from other plates and despite being the quietest meal on the ship it was still full of talking and laughter. Zoro and Sanji even worked a rather loud argument into the mix, slinging their favorite insults back and forth before getting another cup of coffee for Robin distracted the cook.

With the dino's from the day before gone, the crew wasted as little time as possible in getting ready for another jungle hike. This time however, Luffy was not allowed to run off on his own. Nami was determined to find the treasure that was supposed to be buried on this island. A devil fruit was just not going to cut it.

Sanji was at the end of the line, much like the day before. Zoro and Luffy were at the front so it only made sense for the third of the Monster Trio to make sure nothing attacked them from behind. It was probably useless since precautions never seemed to help the Strawhats in any situation ever, but it couldn't hurt.

They walked for most of the morning as the jungle got steadily warmer and more humid. Even the shade from the trees didn't help much. Sanji was particularly hot in his suit but he just lit another cigarette and did his best to not complain. At least out loud. In his mind it was a constant stream of curses. This place was worse than Little Garden. Well, okay, maybe not that bad. But it wasn't pleasant and they kept hiking further into it. They were even going up hill a little, which made it worse.

"This shitty place needs a damn breeze," Sanji grumbled as he slapped his neck where he had felt a bite from some annoying little insect. The shitty bug had aimed right above his collar like a damn sniper or something.

"Maybe you shouldn't wear a three-piece suit into the jungle, crap cook," Zoro called from his place further up the line.

Sanji glared at the back of his green head. "At least I don't look like a goddamned slob all the time, Marimo." Zoro took a moment to look over his shoulder and gave the cook a glare of his own. Sanji grit his teeth around the filter of his cigarette. If only Usopp wasn't in the way Zoro would have a shoe up his ass right about now.

They fell into silence again, mostly because it was too damn hot and muggy to be arguing. Up at the head of the line, Luffy was whining about lunch. Sanji was glad he was at the end of the line and didn't have to deal with that. He'd probably kick the shitty rubber man into a tree if he had to put up with that on top of everything else. The blonde felt like he was about to pass out from heatstroke or something. Maybe Zoro was right. He probably should have worn something a bit less stuffy. Sanji shook his head to knock that thought out of his head. Zoro was not right about fashion. Ever. That was just early onset heatstroke talking.

Frustrated at the heat, Sanji reached up to his tie and began to pull it looser. He could always fix it later. As he twisted his head to help pull the knot down the length of silk something odd caught the cook's eye. He stopped mid-step and let his hand fall from his tie as he turned to look at it more directly.

The cigarette nearly fell out of the cook's mouth as he stared. He had completely forgotten about the others until he heard a familiar voice that never failed to get a reaction. "Oi! You faint back there, shit cook?"

"What did you say, kelp head?!" Sanji whipped around and quickly caught up to the others. He pushed his way forward until he was right beside the swordsman.

"You were taking so long I was sure you'd fainted like a girl or something," Zoro replied casually.

Sanji nearly growled. "I'm gonna kick your ass into next week, you shitty swordsman!"

"Try it!" Zoro challenged with a slightly maniacal look on his face.

Suddenly a metal stick slammed into both their heads. "Would you two cut it out?" Nami demanded. "It's too hot for one of your stupid arguments!"

Grumbling both of them returned to their original places in line. She was right after all. It was too hot to be arguing much. Though they clearly couldn't resist it entirely. Sanji glanced behind him though they were long past what he'd seen before. He made a mental note to go back and check it out before they left the island. He would probably have time. If they didn't all get chased to the next island or blown up into the sky or something else entirely unpredictable yet typical.

"Ah, up here!" Nami suddenly said happily.

Sanji blinked and turned his attention back to what they were doing. In front of them was a large rock wall with a doorway shaped hole carved into it. "Is this where the treasure is, Nami?" Luffy asked scratching his head under his hat.

"That's what the map says!" Nami replied with a grin before turning to Usopp. "Do you have the lights?"

Usopp nodded and started digging in his bag. A moment later, he produced the lights he'd brought though his speech about his latest invention was cut off before he could say even three words. Nami snatched the light from his hand. "H-hey…" Usopp protested weakly. "I wasn't finished…"

Zoro sighed some and patted Usopp on the shoulder as he passed. "Don't worry about that witch, Usopp. You know how she gets."

"Oi! Don't call Nami-swan that, Neanderthal!"

Zoro just rolled his eyes. "What are you going to do about it, cook?" Sanji grit his teeth and tapped his foot behind him. Zoro's eyes narrowed and he reached for his swords. But before either of them could launch into their usual fight they were interrupted by a scream from inside the cave. The two of them exchanged a quick glance before hurrying into the cave after their Nakama.


End file.
